LIBERTY – Election officials in Ray and Clay counties have taken steps to minimize the risk of contracting COVID-19 when voters cast in-person votes during the municipal elections Tuesday, June 2. One big step taken in Clay County involved encouraging voters through the Election Board’s website and Facebook site to cast absentee ballots, rather than vote in person, Clay County Democratic Election Director Tiffany Francis said. “It’s just to keep the numbers down at the polls,” she said. On the final day of this year’s coronavirus-shortened 100th General Assembly session, legislators agreed to ease temporarily some of the state’s absentee voting restrictions. The bill is expected to become law for use in the August primary and November general elections, but did not pass in time to allow virus-excused absentee voting in the municipal elections. As a result of the late passage, all absentee ballot voting in the municipal elections continued to require the voter to give one of the state…